Method for Conducting at Least One Cooking Process

ABSTRACT

A cooking appliance configured to perform a method for conducting at least one cooking process in a cooking chamber of the cooking appliance based on a multiple number of parameters that can be entered through an input device of the cooking appliance. Based on the parameters, at least one cooking product and/or cooking program and at least one starting and/or ending time of the cooking of at least one cooking product and/or for at least one cooking program and at least one cooking parameter can be selected. The appliance is further characterized by the fact that the cooking appliance proposes if and, if applicable, which cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking product already undergoing a cooking process under way.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/115,892, filed May 6, 2008, which claims the priority benefit of European Patent Application No. EP 07009155.8, filed May 7, 2007, the entire contents of each of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is directed to a cooking appliance for cooking one cooking appliance.

BACKGROUND

Numerous methods are known in the state of the art for the conduction of at least one cooking process.

Thus, for example, it is known from DE 199 45 021 A1 that a cooking process can be conducted as a function of a given cooking product size as cooking parameter, whereby the core temperature of a cooking product, the diameter of the cooking product, the density of the cooking product, the type of cooking product, the degree of ripeness of the cooking product, the pH value of the cooking product, the consistency of the cooking product, the storage state of the cooking product, the odor of the cooking product, the flavor of the cooking product, the quality of the cooking product, the browning of the cooking product, the crust formation of the cooking product, the vitamin degradation of the cooking product, the formation of carcinogenic substances in the cooking product, the hygiene of the cooking product, and/or the thermal conductivity of the cooking product can be determined as cooking product parameters.

From EP 1 338 849 A1, the conduction of a cooking process as a function of at least two parameters is known, that can be selected by an operator through a characteristic diagram that is at least two-dimensional. The parameters can be, for example, a degree of browning, that is, the external degree of doneness of a cooking product, or a core temperature, that is, the internal doneness of the cooking product.

DE 196 09 116 A1 discloses a cooking method in a cooking chamber, which is ended when an actual core temperature reaches a target core temperature in a cooking product. If, in addition, the end time point of the cooking method is set, the cooking chamber temperature, the circulating flow velocity in the cooking chamber and the moisture content in the cooking chamber are set or changed in such a way that the target core temperature is reached at the predetermined ending time.

Furthermore, numerous methods are known from the state of the art, which concern the cooking of a multiple number of cooking products in the cooking appliance, especially in different loading levels of a cooking chamber.

Thus a cooking appliance with a multiple number of loading levels is known from WO 2005/016096 A1 and DE 43 24 015 C1, whereby a clock that can be either initiated manually or is triggered automatically is assigned to each loading level, with which a cooking time can be set in this loading level, which makes it possible to display a remaining cooking time for this loading level on a display unit and/or, after the elapse of the cooking time, to output a message for unloading the cooking product from this loading level.

DE 101 32 581 A1 also concerns a cooking appliance with a multiple number of treatment levels, in which different cooking products can be cooked. Hereby it is possible to obtain a common end time of these cooking products in case the cooking of these was begun simultaneously, even when the cooking products require different cooking times. For this purpose, the cooking chamber atmosphere can be set separately in the different loading levels, in order that the different cooking methods can be conducted parallel in a cooking chamber in an energy saving manner.

In one method according to not prepublished EP 1 798 479 A1, a cooking appliance displays which cooking products can be cooked simultaneously with cooking products already arranged inside the cooking chamber of the cooking appliance.

Furthermore, it is known from EP 0 313 768 B2 that a parameter-controlled system can be used in a cooking appliance, that makes it possible to preset at least one heating parameter through an input device when a certain cooking product is selected, and when the input device is actuated again, to display a position in the cooking chamber for the selected cooking product.

Moreover, DE 10 2005 020 744 B3 discloses the compensation for the opening of a cooking chamber door during the conduction of a cooking process. However, in spite of the numerous cooking methods and cooking appliances known in the state of the art, there is still need for further flexibility in connection with the simultaneous automation of a cooking method.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cooking appliance constructed in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Therefore, one task of the disclosure is to further develop the generic cooking appliance in such a way that, with increased flexibility, enhanced cooking reliability is achieved in comparison to known cooking appliance by further automation, so that a desired cooking result is achieved at the end of a cooking process.

According to the disclosure, this task can be accomplished by a cooking appliance that proposed if and, if applicable, which cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking process already under way.

Thus, a high degree of flexibility is provided while simultaneously retaining the exact conduction of a cooking procedure to attain a desired cooking result. Because, according to the disclosure, the cooking appliance proposes if and, if applicable, which cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking process already under way, resulting in a saving of energy and time.

Namely, in a first alternative of using a coking appliance according to the disclosure, the possibility of conducting several cooking programs automatically in succession is provided, even interlaced with one another, without predetermining a sequence and also several times. For example, by selecting a starting time, the entire morning program in a bakery can be preset once, so that the personnel of the bakery is informed accurately each morning as to when and which cooking product is to be loaded and subsequently unloaded. In addition, mixed loads of finishing runs, for example, for preparation of a banquet can be preprogrammed, whereby foods with longer cooking durations receive a loading request first. In a second alternative, the flexibility during cooking is increased by the fact that an operator can enter that a cooking process is to be optimized with regard to energy consumption, required time, and/or weight loss of the cooking product. Thus, specifically, a combination of these two alternatives leads to the fact that an operator can select a multiple number of cooking programs while simultaneously requiring the cooking to be performed in an energy-saving manner. Then, this information is evaluated so that an energy-optimized program linkage is proposed, by displaying when and which cooking product is to be loaded and unloaded.

Hereby, according to the disclosure, preferably, the output device displays a loading request, preferably indicating the cooking product and/or a cooking chamber zone such as a loading level, an error message and/or a cooking information in dependence of the entered parameters, a multiple number of stored data, especially including cooking courses, at least one first measured value determined in the cooking chamber, at least one second measured value determined in at least one cooking product, at least one third measured value of a cooking medium, and/or at least one fourth measured value for an opening of a door for closing a cooking chamber. Also a testing of the plausibility of the inputs of the operator can occur automatically.

Furthermore, it can be provided that at least one value characteristic for the internal degree of doneness and/or external degree of doneness that is desired at the end of a cooking program, and/or for the C value of each cooking product can be entered as parameter. This can lead to an increase of cooking quality.

It is also proposed that, during a cooking procedure, a multiple number of cooking programs run, which can also be different at least in part, and/or at least two cooking programs run overlapped at least part of the time, whereby the cooking process is preferably storable and/or during the cooking process preferably a compensation of the effects of opening of a cooking chamber door can be performed.

As a result of this, not only avoidance of dead times as well as saving of resources is achieved, but also tedious multiple entry of many cooking programs can be avoided, namely by storing all inputs, while the desired cooking results are ensured by compensation for each opening of a cooking chamber door.

Furthermore, according to the disclosure, it may be provided that at least one parameter determining at least one cooking parameter is selected through a multidimensional field, which can preferably be displayed on the display device. Thus the operation is simplified.

Further characteristics and advantages of the disclosure follow from the description of specific practical examples given below.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

For example, a method according to the disclosure makes it possible to optimize the morning loading of counters for a bakery store with regard to time and energy. Thus, cooking programs used each day, intended to process bakery products to be freshly baked each day from frozen parts of dough or from prebaked products, can be entered once through an input device in a cooking appliance and stored, so that after starting the cooking appliance each morning, it first heats its cooking chamber and then goes through the predetermined programs, so to speak in a stack, and, to be precise, with special consideration of optimization of time and energy. For example, if baguettes, bread rolls, pretzels and croissants are to be baked each morning, then the following requirements may appear on a display device of the cooking appliance after its staring and a heating time:

load baguettes;

unload baguettes;

load bread rolls;

unload bread rolls;

load pretzels;

unload pretzels;

load croissants; and

unload croissants,

whereby preheating may occur between each of the various requests for loading. The counters of the bakery store are filled after running through this stack of programs.

Another processing of a program stack may be useful, for example, in the preparation of a lunch menu for catering in schools. In this case, meals, for example, in the form of a slice of meat, a potato side dish, and a vegetable side dish are regenerated or finish cooked in food containers for many students so that the serving of foods can take place at a given time. After turning on the cooking appliance according to the disclosure and input of the foods, an optimum linkage of the cooking methods to be performed is calculated, and then, after heating the cooking chamber, the request is issued to load the meat first. After a first time span, the request to load the potato side dish follows. After a second time span, the request to load the vegetable side dish is given. After a third time span, finally the request comes to unload the meat as well as the potato side dish and the vegetable side dish.

For, example, parallel to a steaming of vegetable in a cooking chamber, cooking of eggs can also be performed, since both require a similar cooking chamber atmosphere. More precisely, it can be said that when introducing the potato preparation into a steaming process and cooking eggs in a cooking appliance according to the disclosure, after a preheating step, it will appear on a display device, that the potatoes and the eggs should be loaded simultaneously, and then an unloading display for the eggs will follow before the unloading display for the potatoes appears. Hereby, the times of opening the door are taken into account automatically, as described, for example, in DE 10 2005 020 744 B3 of the Applicant.

The interlacing and/or stacking of programs according to the disclosure also makes it possible to use a cooking chamber atmosphere in an energy and time-saving manner for the purpose of preparing different aliments.

It should also be pointed out that cooking appliance according to the disclosure calculates an optimal time sequence of processes running one after another and/or running partly parallel, and it displays the corresponding result to the operator via loading and unloading requests. In order to introduce additional variability here, according to the disclosure performing the cooking with different priorities is also provided. In other words, not only optimization of the cooking quality should occur, but it should also be possible for a client to choose a variation that is optimized for energy, time or weight. Of course, all these parameters mutually influence one another, so that a compromise is selected, so that, in other words, the selection by an operator establishes a focal point for the optimization of a cooking method. Thus, for example, a display device of a cooking appliance according to the disclosure can display a two-dimensional field for the selection of cooking parameters, for example, with time plotted on the x-axis and energy on the y-axis, and an operator can choose a point in this field. If the display device is in the form a touchscreen, a point can simply be activated by finger pressure, but selection with a joystick is also conceivable.

Optimization of time and energy is achieved with cooking appliances which, in addition to a conventional heating device, either in the form of an electric heating device or including a gas burner, have at least one microwave source, since microwaves make possible greater flexibility, because they lead to a rapid increase of the core temperature inside a cooking product, without this resulting in the arrival at a determined end state at an early point in time. Therefore, when directing a microwave source, it is recommended that the so-called cooking value (C value) be utilized in conducting the cooking process, which can be calculated as follows:

${C_{BT}^{UF} = {\int_{St}^{t^{\prime}}{{UF}^{\frac{\lbrack{{T{(t)}} - {BT}}\rbrack}{10}}\ {t}}}},$

where

UF=conversion factor;

BT=reference temperature=100° C.;

T(t)=core temperature curve;

St=time at which a starting temperature was exceeded, depending on the food; and

t′=actual time.

For example, let us assume that an operator of a cooking appliance according to the disclosure has to serve food for a festivity at a given time and the preparation should proceed in an energy-saving manner. Thus, in preparation for the festivity, the operator could enter that on the day of the festivity, a roast should be cooked to be ready at a given time, and with as little energy consumption as possible. Then the method according to the disclosure would calculate the time at which the loading display should appear, in order to remind the operator to load the cooking appliance.

Should the time desired by the operator for having the roast ready be shorter that the actually required cooking time, then a corresponding message will appear on the display device of the cooking appliance, namely, in the form of an error message. Therefore a plausibility testing occurs automatically according to the disclosure.

During a cooking process, the actual cooking appliance settings, for example, regarding the microwave power, moisture and similar, can be displayed on the display device. According to the disclosure it is also possible for an operator to receive information via the display device as to which cooking product could be cooked optimally parallel to a cooking process that is already running. Thus, for example, when cooking a roast, which takes a long time, vegetable side dishes can be added at a given time. Thus, an optimum interlacing of programs and parallel processing of cooking products is proposed.

Furthermore, it is pointed out that the calculations in the method according to the disclosure can be carried out based on previously recorded measured curves assuming full loading of a cooking appliance, so that, in case of partial loading, an adjustment of the process must take place automatically, namely as a function of measured values obtained with at least one measuring device. Such adjustments are known in the state of the art, see for example DE 196 09 116 A1.

The advantage of linking or stacking of programs also consist, specifically, in the fact that an operator needs to enter a sequence of cooking programs only once and can leave it in the cooking appliance.

The characteristics disclosed in the above description and in the claims can be essential both individually and also in any arbitrary combination for the realization of the disclosure in its various embodiments. 

1-9. (canceled)
 10. Cooking appliance, comprising: a control or regulating device, a heating device in working connection with the control or regulating device, the heating device comprising at least one of an electric heater, a gas burner, a heat exchanger, or a device for radiating electromagnetic radiation into the cooking chamber, a device for introducing moisture into the cooking chamber, the device for introducing moisture disposed in working connection with the control or regulating device and comprising at least one of a steam generator, a water atomizer, or a steaming device, a device for removing moisture from the cooking chamber, the device for removing moisture disposed in working connection with the control or regulating device and comprising at least one of a fresh air inlet or a condenser, a device for circulating the cooking chamber atmosphere, the device for circulating disposed in working connection with the control or regulating device and comprising at least one of a fan or a pump, an input device in working connection with the control or regulating device, and an output device in working connection with the control or regulating device, wherein the cooking appliance is configured to perform a method for conducting at least one cooking process in a cooking chamber of the cooking appliance based on a multiple number of parameters entered through the input device of the cooking appliance, whereby, based on the parameters, at least one cooking product and/or cooking program and at least one starting and/or ending time of the cooking of the at least one cooking product and/or for the at least one cooking program and the at least one cooking parameter can be selected, and wherein the cooking appliance proposes if another cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking product already undergoing a cooking process under way.
 11. Cooking appliance according to claim 10, wherein the cooking appliance further proposes which cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking product undergoing a cooking process already under way.
 12. Cooking appliance according to claim 10, wherein the device for radiating electromagnetic radiation into the cooking chamber comprises a microwave source.
 13. Cooking appliance according to claim 10, wherein the input device makes it possible to select at least two parameters on a two-dimensional field.
 14. Cooking appliance according to claim 13, wherein the input device comprises a touch-screen or a joystick wherein at least one cooking program and one start and/or end time for the cooking program or one cooking product and one start and/or end time for cooking the cooking product can be selected via the touch-screen or joystick.
 15. Cooking appliance according to claim 10, wherein, in dependence of the selection of the starting time and/or ending time, in the selection of a multiple number of cooking products and/or cooking programs, the output device indicates when each cooking product is to be loaded into the cooking chamber and to be removed from the cooking chamber.
 16. Cooking appliances according to claim 10, wherein, in the case of a multiple number of cooking products and/or cooking programs, the sequence of cooking of the cooking products and/or of the cooking programs is optimized, wherein based on at least one parameter, that determines at least one cooking parameter, each cooking process is optimized with regard to the energy consumed by the cooking appliance, the required time and/or the weight loss of each cooking product.
 17. Cooking appliance according to claim 10, wherein the output device displays a loading request indicating a cooking product and/or a cooking chamber zone, such as a loading level, an error message and/or cooking information in dependence of the entered parameters, a multiple number of stored data, especially including cooking courses, of at least one first measured value obtained in the cooking chamber, at least one second measured value obtained in at least one cooking product, at least one third measured value of a cooking medium, and/or at least one fourth measured value for an opening of a door for closing the cooking chamber, wherein the first, second, third and/or fourth value can be detected via at least one sensing unit.
 18. Cooking appliance according to claim 10, further comprising a memory device in which a number of cooking programs are stored.
 19. Cooking appliance according to claim 18, wherein the cooking appliance is configured to store the performed cooking programs in the memory device after the end of each cooking process.
 20. Cooking appliance, comprising: a heating device comprising at least one of an electric heater, a gas burner, a heat exchanger, or a device for radiating electromagnetic radiation into the cooking chamber, a device for introducing moisture into the cooking chamber, the device for introducing moisture comprising at least one of a steam generator, a water atomizer, or a steaming device, a device for removing moisture from the cooking chamber, the device for removing moisture comprising at least one of a fresh air inlet or a condenser, a device for circulating the cooking chamber atmosphere, the device for circulating comprising at least one of a fan or a pump, an input device, an output device, and a control or regulating means for performing a method for conducting at least one cooking process in a cooking chamber of the cooking appliance based on a multiple number of parameters entered through the input device of the cooking appliance, whereby, based on the parameters, at least one cooking product and/or cooking program and at least one starting and/or ending time of the cooking of the at least one cooking product and/or for the at least one cooking program and the at least one cooking parameter can be selected, and for proposing if another cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking product already undergoing a cooking process under way.
 21. Cooking appliance according to claim 20, wherein the control or regulating means is further for proposing which cooking product can be cooked in addition to a cooking product undergoing a cooking process already under way.
 22. Cooking appliance according to claim 20, wherein the device for radiating electromagnetic radiation into the cooking chamber comprises a microwave source.
 23. Cooking appliance according to claim 20, wherein the input device makes it possible to select at least two parameters on a two-dimensional field.
 24. Cooking appliance according to claim 23, wherein the input device comprises a touch-screen or a joystick wherein at least one cooking program and one start and/or end time for the cooking program or one cooking product and one start and/or end time for cooking the cooking product can be selected via the touch-screen or joystick.
 25. Cooking appliance according to claim 20, wherein, in dependence of the selection of the starting time and/or ending time, in the selection of a multiple number of cooking products and/or cooking programs, the output device indicates when each cooking product is to be loaded into the cooking chamber and to be removed from the cooking chamber.
 26. Cooking appliances according to claim 20, wherein, in the case of a multiple number of cooking products and/or cooking programs, the sequence of cooking of the cooking products and/or of the cooking programs is optimized, wherein based on at least one parameter, that determines at least one cooking parameter, each cooking process is optimized with regard to the energy consumed by the cooking appliance, the required time and/or the weight loss of each cooking product.
 27. Cooking appliance according to claim 20, wherein the output device displays a loading request indicating a cooking product and/or a cooking chamber zone, such as a loading level, an error message and/or cooking information in dependence of the entered parameters, a multiple number of stored data, especially including cooking courses, of at least one first measured value obtained in the cooking chamber, at least one second measured value obtained in at least one cooking product, at least one third measured value of a cooking medium, and/or at least one fourth measured value for an opening of a door for closing the cooking chamber, wherein the first, second, third and/or fourth value can be detected via at least one sensing unit.
 28. Cooking appliance according to claim 20, further comprising a memory device in which a number of cooking programs are stored.
 29. Cooking appliance according to claim 28, wherein the cooking appliance is configured to store the performed cooking programs in the memory device after the end of each cooking process. 